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This playfully elegant garden, a collaboration between famed cellist Yo Yo Ma, landscape architect Julie Moir Messervy, and Toronto landscape architects, was inspired by J. S. Bach’s First Suite for Unaccompanied Cello . Each dance movement in the suite – allemande, courante, sarabande, menuett, and gigue – plus a prelude, is represented by the plantings in one of the six sections of the garden. Summer concerts are held in the grassy amphitheater.

You will want a full day to explore this 710-acre (287-ha) zoo and its some 5,000 animals rep- resenting about 450 species. Roaming freely within outdoor enclosures, large creatures such as African elephants can be seen along 6 miles (10 km) of trails. Also along the trails are four tropical pavilions, each representing a distinct geographic habitat.

This six-tower complex is one of the most important pieces of architecture in the city (see Toronto-Dominion Centre). The black steel I-beams of the 1968 Toronto Dominion Bank Tower are trademark Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969), and perfectly reflect the architect’s modernist dictum that “Less is more.” In the plaza, a circular bronze sculpture, Al McWilliams’s Wall and Chairs , echoes the towers’ austerity. Below ground is a shopping mall, the only one van der Rohe ever designed.

This working post office and museum opened in 1833 and is the only surviving example of a British-era post office in Canada. Here, you can write a letter with a quill pen and have it stamped with a distinctive cancellation mark: “York-Toronto 1833.” There is also a topographic model of 1830s Toronto, period furniture, and 19th-century reproduction ink wells and sealing wax. The library, housing an extensive archival collection of postal-related materials, is open by appointment only, but admission to the museum is free for self-guided tours.

Famous in the 1960s as a hippie hangout and now the city’s most exclusive retail district, this window-shoppers’ paradise abounds with eye-candy. Refined art galleries nestle among chic boutiques, bars, and restaurants. Visiting movie stars can often be spotted here, especially during film festival time (see Yorkville).

In the 1960s, it was ground zero for hippies and the youth culture; today, this neighborhood is ground zero for establishment culture and the city’s most upscale shopping. Expensive shops on Cumberland St and Yorkville Ave, between Bay St and Avenue Rd, sell luxury goods such as cosmetics, jewelry, designer fashions, antiques, and leather luggage. The area’s numerous restaurants and bars cater to equally refined palates and wallets. There are also more than 20 fine-art galleries in the area, exhibiting some of the country’s top names. Sidewalk cafés provide stylish perches for people-watching (see Yorkville).

Yorkville